i would say there were times as his daughter katie said my father was a very wicked man. i'd say none of that matters at all. none of it matters because the humanity and generosity and the warmth of the writing can extinguish all of that. >> charlie: to de muir, simon, what would you say? >> you have face the fact that they are uninspired passages in dickens. sometimes they go on for quite a long time. (laughing) but what is there is extra or nary. christopher hitchens said in his final essay he said that yes there are dud passages here and it is hard to know which novel or character it comes from. dickens he said is like one great bale of fabric out of which the novels are cut. you're in touch with dickens himself wherever you look in his novels. he was such an extraordinary, such a great, such a complex human being that you can't get enough of him. >> when you're a reader you make bar gavins with writers. when i was a little kid, he's tel sent me over the edge. my bar dane with dickens has been i will put up with the girls if you will be very, very funny. >> james talke